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After reading your response, I checked out your profile. I am glad I did not do so before I responded to your question.

First, as a newbie, let me express my appreciation to have the chance to speak with an FR elder.

Second, I stand in awe at your mastery of html. I'm still working on it.

Obviously the issue at hand is one that is of great historical interest to you. As a fellow lover of history, the information you presented is one of those unique instances where key historical elements on which most scholars agree, might have significant impact on the way people see the world, but which have been conveniently ignored or forgotten because their effect is contrary to contemporary political necessities.

The most complicated part of this particular case is the God question. In a purely historical sense we can analyze what occurred several thousand years ago and surmize how one event led to another to bring us to where we are today, even factoring in the religion that is so much a part of the Middle East.

If, however, one believes that God Himself actually shaped this history, that requires a much different perspective and one that we cannot expect to fully comprehend.

My beliefs are fairly simple. If there is a God he is timeless (non-temporal) and thus His original covenant was not broken as a result the New Covenant. If the Jews (as opposed to the Hebrews) are His "Chosen People", He has never abandoned them,and the major events in their history are a result of God's interference. The meanings of these historical events will only become after a very long period of time in human terms (it has only been 50 years since the Holocaust - Christianity didn't really take off until about 300-400 years after Jesus).

These are just some thoughts of mine on the subject. I would be pleased to hear more from your side. :0)

>I stand in awe at your mastery of html. I'm still working on it.

Thanks for your comment, but after hacking it the hard way for a long time I finally gave in and now do it the easy way. I use COMPOSER, the HTML editor which comes free with Netscape 4.x, still my preferred browser and email client. But the version of COMPOSER which comes free with Netscape 7 is far far superior but also easy to use. It is the one I use when there is complicated copying, cutting and pasting, etc. Strongly recommended.

Microsoft Explorer does not have an easy to use HTML editor, but Microsoft FrontPage works fine. It is not free, but that's what I use when the going gets REALLY tough.

I'm sure some REAL computer experts here could give you better advice than that, but it works for me. (P.S. I'm out of time, but will respond to the rest of your post later.)

>If the Jews (as opposed to the Hebrews) are His "Chosen People", He has never abandoned them,

Please let me refer you again to the DEFINITIONS in order to keep the terms straight. I believe a good part of the problems we are having today throughout global society is caused by not understanding this simple history and the very basic definitions.

When you sort out Gods promises to Abraham, Moses and others, they mostly apply to the Israelites. ALL of the Israelites, not just the tiny minority who a thousand years later became known was Jews.

It is todays Southern Kingdom Jews with a population of only 12(?) Million who could almost be called "The Lost Tribes of Israel" when compared to their Northern Kingdom Celtic cousins with a population of nearly 1 Billion. (No I'm not serious about any name switch, but it does make the point.)